Young people are disengaged in politics!
David, T. cook (2003) reported that James Carville has stated that in the current society, rather than class warfare, there is a generational warfare, the elderly people have declared war on young people. Furthermore, David T. Cook (2003) stated for James Carville, this is the war we should be focusing on and addressing. This is alarming for young people as most young people are probably unaware of how this “war” is putting them at a disadvantage in society. This assumption that young people are probably unaware of how this “war” is putting them at a disadvantage in society is based on young people low turnout in election which is illustrated on figure 1.
In addition, the low turnout in election puts young people at a disadvantage because government policies have favoured elderly people but disfavoured the young people in recent years. There have been a cut in youth services, increase in tuition fee and removal of education maintenance allowance. However, elderly people`s state pension, winter fuel allowance and buses passes are less affected. This difference in treatment between these two age categories reflected in government policies is caused by young people disengagement in voting. This raises the question, what is the difference in politically engagement between the elderly people and young people?
Figure 1 above illustrates the data collected by Ipsos MORI of 2015 General Elections. We can see that there is a significant difference between the number of young people voting compared to the elderly people. Ipsos MORI (2015) reported that the turnout for young people age 18-24 years was 43% compared to elderly people age 55-64 which was 77% in the election. There is a huge difference of 34% between the turnout of the young people and elderly people. This finding is very significant because it highlights how there is lack of representation of young people in the general election. Furthermore, it suggests that young people turnout needs to increase drastically for young people to have any chance of their voices being heard in the election.
Moreover, these findings highlight the importance of the current campaign youth quake, which is a campaign for 16 and 17 year olds to be allowed to vote. The reason for this campaign is not only are young people turnout low but in society the proportion of elderly people is much higher compared to young people age 18-24 in society. Therefore, in order to give young people equal opportunity to stand a chance of their voice being heard in the election, there needs to be an increase in the proportion of young people being allowed to vote to match the elderly people.
How does the turnout of young people in the United Kingdom compare to other European countries young people turnout in election
Figure 2 illustrates the turnout among 18-24 years across Europe, we can see that among the eight European countries the country with the highest turnout of young people is Sweden, which is 82%. The country with the lowest turnout is United Kingdom with 37.1%, the difference between Sweden and United Kingdom in turnout is drastic, there is a difference of 44.9%. This finding is significant as it suggests that United Kingdom has failed to engage their young people compared to other countries in Europe, this analysis is supported by the figure 2 as it shows there is at least a 10% difference in turnout between United Kingdom and the other seven countries.
So why are we experiencing this drop in political engagement with young people in United Kingdom?
Norris (2003) argued that in society a lot of the citizens are politically disengaged, however, young people are the most affected by political disengagement as they believe to be particularly disillusioned about the major institutions of representative democracy, leaving them either apathetic (at best) or alienated (at worst). This theory seems to suggest that young people in the United Kingdom lack political engagement because they feel that their opinion does not matter or feel they do not have enough power and authority to make a change. This explanation has substance as due to the “bloom year” the proportion of the elder people is way more compared to the young people, so even if the percent of young people turnout increases as long as majority of the elderly oppose the young people, the young people will not win, this could be where the feelings of alienation and apathetic feelings mentioned by Norris (2003) stem from.
Personally, my political disengagement can be explained using this theory of Norris (2003), I feel apathetic when it comes to politics. This is because I am from an African and working-class background, therefore I feel my voice would not make a difference as I am part of the ethnic minority in British society and because of this I lack interest towards politics.
Overall, the government have failed in engaging young people when it comes to politics. In order to try fix this issue, they should attempt to pass the youth quake campaign and see if it gets rid of apathetic and alienation feelings, which would lead young people to be more politically involved according to Norris (2003).
References:
Ipsos MORI (2015) How Britain voted in 2015. Trillium Systems. Accessed 19/02/17 from https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3575/How-Britain-voted-in-2015.aspx?view=print.
James Sloam and Muhammad Rakib Ehsan (2017) Youth Quake: Young people and the 2017 General Election. [Online] Intergenerational Foundation. Available at: https://moodle.roehampton.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/734808/mod_resource/content/1/Youth-Quake_Final.pdf [Accessed 18th Feb.2018].
Norris, P. (2003). Young people & political activism: From the politics of loyalties to the politics of choice? Paper presented to the Council of Europe Symposium, Young People and Democratic Institutions: From Disillusionment to Participation, Strasbourg.
T. Cook, D. (2003). Monitor Breakfast with James Carville and Stanley Greenberg. [online] The Christian Science Monitor. Available at: https://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0124/p25s04-usmb.html [Accessed 16 Feb. 2018].